


Holding Onto You

by Lilyxc



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Drinking, F/M, Getting Together, Illegal Activities, M/M, Mentions of Violence, One Night Stands, Phan AU, Phanfiction, Rich!Phil, businessman!Phil, pickpocket!dan, thief!dan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2017-01-16
Packaged: 2018-07-11 09:32:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7042597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilyxc/pseuds/Lilyxc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dan Howell is a thief, a pickpocket, who has a surprisingly kind heart. His life has gone haywire for as long as he can remember, but he's trying to make the most of what he's been given. Phil Lester is a young uprising businessman who is close to his final breakthrough to the world of fortune and wealth. This is a story about the time when Dan just so happens to steal something from Phil and their paths cross, turning their worlds upside down.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! This is my first chaptered phanfic (and the first one ever on this account, yay), hope you like it. (please like it) Sorry if I've made some stupid grammar mistakes, English is not my native language so feel free to help me and tell me if you spot something. So, getting to the point that is the first chapter. Enjoy, or something. I don't know.

It was a rainy, rather boringly grey day in London. It was that kind of day when you’d stay inside and watch a movie while sipping a cup of tea or spend some bonding time with your family and friends. But for Dan Howell, these kind of days didn’t give anything but trouble. He was a thief, a pickpocket, and rainy days tended to make people stay home rather than go out shopping or for a walk, which meant less people to get money from. Stealing was also a whole lot harder when there was not a big crowd to hide in, so Dan had given up pretty early when the first drops of water had landed on his nose. Then he had wandered around the city aimlessly for mere fifteen minutes, but when the rain started to pour down he had quickly gotten in the nearest cafe he saw. That’s how he ended up in a super expensive place which regulars probably were mostly rich, posh people and nothing like Dan himself.

Dan was trying to be as smooth as he could, though. He ordered the cheapest thing possible, which turned out to be a small glass of water that costed five pounds. Even though it hurt his heart and wallet, he paid for the water, shrugging off the funny looks the waiter was giving him and went to sit down, avoiding looking suspicious. People like him didn’t go to places like this one, and he already looked like a beggar compared to all the businessmen in their suits when he was wearing an old dark hoodie and black skinny jeans that were ripped at the knees, so he didn’t want to draw any more attention to himself than he already was.

The cafe had creamy white walls and dark, glossy floors, completed with white lamps that had a bit of dark brown in them. The tables and chairs were modern-styled, probably from one of the top designers in the world, and they sure looked expensive. Dan sighed as he let his gaze wander around the place, and took a small sip from his ridiculously expensive glass of water, soon pulling his phone out. Being in a place like this made him feel a bit uneasy, because only the lamps alone probably costed more money than he had ever owned in his entire life. He was lucky to even have a phone, according to his financial situation. It had taken him nearly two years to save up the money for the iPhone he wanted, and it was undoubtedly the most valuable item he owned and he was very thankful to have it.

Dan tried to kill time playing games on his phone as he waited for the rain to stop. When he had sat in the cafe for half an hour he was starting to get a bit restless, and the waiters were giving him odd looks because he had finished his water ages ago. He put his phone back in his pocket and threw another glance around the place. He was still lacking a lot of money for today, and it wasn’t like he was able to pickpocket someone outside. Maybe he could steal something from the rich people here who were enjoying their afternoon tea in peace? There was an old couple sitting in the booth next to the window, a busy looking lady who was speaking to his phone and typing on her laptop and a group of important looking businessmen who were talking quietly, and a few others who didn’t intrigue Dan that much.

Dan pondered his options. He could grab the old woman's purse, or maybe sneak the lady’s wallet from her laptop bag, and then there were the businessmen. There were three of them at the moment, but Dan swore there had been four people when he came. He shrugged it off, and focused on finding something worth stealing. The guys had laptops, but they were currently using them, and they seemed to take a good care of their other belongings as well. Except, wait a minute. Someone had left their briefcase on the floor, leaning against the leg of one of the chairs. It was probably the fourth man’s property, who was now nowhere to be seen, Dan figured and bit his lip, thinking. He could easily snatch that from there if he walked past them, but he had to make sure he wouldn’t get caught later on. He quickly checked the locations of the security cameras, which were mainly pointing at the door and the cash register. Good. The fourth guy was still missing, and the other three were so wrapped in their conversation that they wouldn’t even notice if the world was ending around them. Dan smiled to himself. This was almost too easy for him. He didn’t let his hopes get too high, though. There was probably nothing too important in the briefcase, as it was practically abandoned on the floor, but Dan hoped that there were at least a few quids in there.

Dan rose from his chair, leaving the empty glass of water on the table, and started slowly approach the table where the men sat. He kept an eye on his surroundings the whole time, but made a good job at keeping up his ‘just a bypasser’-act. At least there was one thing he was good at, due to a lot of practise. The thought made him smirk, which he quickly wiped off his face as he passed the men’s table and smoothly picked up the briefcase from the floor, covering it a little with his body as he continued walking. Soon he was out of the cafe, and he finally let himself breathe out properly. At least he got something today.

He made his way through the rain to the less wealthy parts of the city where his shared apartment was. He and his roommate Jimmy had a one-room apartment, where they both lived just fine even though the lack of space made it a bit difficult sometimes. It was better than living in the streets like they used to when they were younger, and alone they definitely couldn't afford an apartment, so it didn’t matter that much. Their landlord was a creepy guy himself, and didn’t care what kind of people he rented his apartments to as long as they paid their rent somehow, so that wasn’t a problem for them. And if it was, Dan and Jimmy would still find a solution to keep their apartment, it just would include some illegal things and street gangs. Nevertheless, they had a place to stay so everything was fine.

“Nice weather out there”, Jimmy commented when Dan stumbled through their apartment door, soaking wet at this point. Jimmy was lying on his bed and counting what seemed like coins, flashing a grin in Dan’s direction. Huffling, Dan just rolled his eyes and stripped out of his damp hoodie, throwing it on his friend who let out a sound of protest. Then he walked to his bed and laid the briefcase on it carefully.

“Whatcha got there?” Jimmy called out as he took the wet hoodie off himself and threw it on the floor and watched from his bed as Dan struggled with opening the thing.

“I took some businessman’s briefcase”, Dan explained as he rummaged through it when he had got it opened, “ I wonder if there’s any money in here.”

He kept examining the briefcase, which seemed to contain a lot of papers that said nothing to him, and he tossed them aside without a much of thought. Finally, when he had gone through the whole briefcase, he found three £20 notes from between the papers. “A-ha!” he exclaimed and showed the bills to Jimmy, who nodded approvingly.

“Seems like we’ll manage for a few more days”, he said with a smile, which Dan returned.

“Did you got anything today?” Dan asked from his friend, who shrugged.

“Not really, barely two pounds or so from the parking machines”, he said and shook his head. “People didn’t exactly like going out today.”

Dan had to agree.

Later that night Dan was on his phone and Jimmy was reading a book in the light of their only lamp they had found in a recycle bin and fixed. Dan, as usual, was scrolling and trying to distract himself from the guilt that was gnawing him from the inside every single night when he got to think how bad human being he was. He felt even worse now, because he usually stole only what he needed desperately, but now he had stolen some papers he really had no use for, and they looked like they could be important to people who understood something about them. Dan sighed, and turned to look at his reading friend.

“Jim, I think I’ll try to find the owner of the briefcase and give it back to him if i do”, he told his thoughts out loud and Jimmy looked at him, a knowing look on his face.

“Dan, are you feeling bad about it again?” he asked, and sighed when the only response he got was a nod. “You know, it’s life. Ours tends to be pretty crap, but we try to make the most of it”, he said gently, and watched as Dan’s emotions changed from guilty to puzzled and back.

“It’s a bit weird that you’re still feeling like that after all these years”, Jimmy noted with a little laugh, but Dan didn’t laugh along, he just groaned.

“Not funny! I feel like I’m a terrible human being! Which I am, but, well, you know how I feel”, Dan mumbled and buried his face in his hands. Jimmy shook his head fondly, and stood up from his bed, putting his book away and went to sit down next to Dan.

“I do know how you feel”, he started gently, wrapping his arm around Dan’s shoulders. He sure knew, because this wasn’t the first breakdown Dan’s had over the years, and probably wasn’t going to be the last one either. Hell, even he himself felt like that sometimes. “But you should know that we won’t do for long with those few pounds we got, so I think you should consider showing the papers to Theodore”, he continued.

Theodore was the leader of the ‘gang’, a group of criminals that ruled the streets around here, and what Dan and Jimmy occasionally helped and did some tasks for.

“If he finds them interesting, maybe he’ll pay us something”, Jimmy suggested and Dan nodded slowly, “but if even he isn’t interested, feel free to find the guy who you stole this from, I’m not stopping you even though it sounds like a stupid idea.”

Dan nodded again and smiled weakly. “I’ll do that”, he whispered to Jimmy, who smiled reassuringly. “Thanks for cheering me up again”, he continued, sounding a bit ashamed of himself.

Jimmy just laughed and stood up again, gently pushing Dan to lay down and then throwing his old, a bit dusty duvet over him.

“Try to sleep now, okay?” he smiled and Dan nodded, chuckling quietly.

“You too.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU FOR THE NICE COMMENTS!!!! I appreciate them SO MUCH you don't even know. I'm trying my very best with this story even if this is sometimes a bit challenging. (Yet again, if I've made some stupid mistake, I'd love you forever if you could help me and tell me what it was!) Anyways, here comes the second chapter.

“Are you ready to go yet?” Jimmy shouted through the bathroom door, and Dan hummed as a response.

“I’ll be ready in a second”, he shouted back and groaned when he tried to get his straighteners to do their job. “If I ever get these to work”, he grumbled as an afterthought and shook his head in defeat when his hair still remained curly after minutes of fighting.

“Whatever”, he mumbled and tossed his straighteners aside. You could say they were a bit of old and didn’t work that well anymore. He had gotten them from a flea market years ago, and the fact that they had survived this long of rigorous using was a surprising thing itself. Now they were starting to fail him day by day, and he had already started to save money for new ones.

Jimmy snickered when Dan stepped out of the bathroom, his hair still as curly as it had been when he had woken up. “At least you won’t be destroying your hair with those killing machines today”, Jimmy laughed and Dan gave him a death glare.

“Shut up”, he mumbled and went to grab his almost dry hoodie from the floor.

“Do you want to go and visit the gang first or do you want to go somewhere else?” he asked from Jimmy as he was gathering all the papers back to the briefcase.

“Sure, it’s not like I’m in a hurry or anything”, Jimmy shrugged and stood up from his bed. “Shall we get going then?”

“What am I going to say to him?” Dan wondered aloud as they were walking to the place where Theodore’s gang was settled in. The gang, in reality, was just a group of criminals who had just happened to get together and start working as a group. Dan and Jimmy had had their first encounter with them when they had only been little kids, and oh had they been scared back then. Soon, though, they had realised their potential with them and had started to do little tasks for them for money. Nowadays they almost belonged in the gang themselves, but not really as they were still so young and preferred dealing with their own stuff.

In the other hand, the gang was pretty threatening, they had guns and some other weapons with them at all times, so they sure had a lot of power in the underworld of London. Somehow they had managed to stay away from the police, if a few encounters didn’t count. So Dan was nervous for a reason, because anyone from the gang could kill them both in a blink of an eye if they really wanted to.

“Just say that you stole them from some rich business guy, and It’ll be enough of an explanation”, Jimmy said and chuckled when he saw Dan’s tense expression. He had always been more at ease with the gang, and usually did most of the talking. “Okay”, Dan breathed and soon they arrived at the building the gang had their headquarters in. It was an apartment building with three floors, an unflattering shade of of grey and just basically a very boring building. In other words, it was a perfect place to commit illegal things in.

Jimmy knocked on the door three times, and soon someone came to open it for them. They nodded at the guy, who then asked what they were here for.

“We have something that may be useful, we’re going to meet Theodore”, Jimmy explained and the guy let them go on.

They went up the stairs, through a few hallways and soon they were standing in front of an another door.

“Come on, open the door”, Jimmy whispered when Dan was frozen in front of the door, “it’s not that big deal.” Dan huffed, and was just about to protest when someone came out of the door they stood in front of.

The man eyed the two suspiciously, but walked past them wordlessly. When he was gone, Jimmy pushed Dan through the door and shut it behind them.

“Hello, boys”, they were immediately greeted by Theodore, who was sitting behind his desk.

There was something very unsettling about Theodore. He was a big guy, had some stubble on his chin and a long scar on the side of his head. Dan could’ve even called him ruggedly handsome if he wasn’t so beware of him. He didn’t exactly look scary, but there was something threatening about him.

“Hi”, Dan finally managed to break the silence and smile awkwardly when Theodore gazed at them expectantly.

“Did you have something to tell me or are you here just to waste my time?” he asked in a flat voice, leaning his head against his palm.

“No! I mean, yes! I have this thing”, Dan rushed to say and quickly lifted the briefcase on the desk, opening it. “I snatched this from some business guy, and I was wondering if these papers are worth something”, he continued to explain and Theodore nodded slowly.

“Okay, let me have a look”, he said and took the papers from Dan. Then he glanced through them, occasionally humming as he did.

“Well, you've got some interesting papers over here, I have to say”, he started when he had read them all.

“Really?” Dan responded, surprise written all over his face.

“No”, Theodore chuckled and Dan’s face fell. “These have absolutely no use, I’m afraid”, he added as he neatly placed the papers back in the briefcase and handed it back to Dan. “They’re basically just reports and boring shit like that, feel free to do whatever you want with them”, Theodore shrugged and went back to cleaning his pistol that was lying on his desk, “use them as wallpaper in that apartment of yours or something.”

“At least the papers could've been something important”, Jimmy tried to cheer Dan up as they got out of Theodore’s office.

“But they weren’t”, Dan mumbled and sighed.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get money from somewhere else”, Jimmy encouraged and Dan murmured something under his breath as a response.

“Are you still up for that plan of yours that you’ll try to find the guy you stole them from?” Jimmy questioned and Dan nodded.

“Yeah, otherwise I’d just loathe in guilt forever”, he replied and smirked to himself. “Well, at least I’ve got something to do today”, he claimed with a little laugh and Jimmy smiled at him.

“True”, he said and patted his friend on the back. “Hey, Dan, I think I’m not coming with you”, he started as they reached the front door. “I’m gonna catch up with some of the guys here, I’ll be home by night”, he added.

“Okay, do as you wish”, Dan shrugged. “See you tonight, then.”

Dan was wandering around the town again, but this time he actually knew where he was going. He had a few friends who did something as doubtful for living as he did, and hoped that they could help him. First he was headed to meet Brittany and Beatrice, his friends who were twins. They looked very alike, both of them had ginger hair, freckles on their cheeks and very similar voices. Sometimes Dan had a hard time in telling them apart, but luckily they preferred to have different hairstyles and clothing. Beatrice usually kept her hair on a ponytail and wore mostly black clothes, just like Dan himself. Brittany, on the other hand, liked to make curls to her hair and keep it open. She also wore much lighter and more colorful clothes than her sister did, so most of the time it wasn’t that hard to say who was who. Dan didn’t exactly know what the two did for living, since every time he brought the subject up the two girls were quick to start talking about something else. He didn’t push it, though, because it wasn’t his place to judge his friends for doing something shady and he totally understood if they weren’t willing to talk about it that much.

Finally Dan arrived at the park they had agreed to meet in, and soon he spotted his friends, who were sitting on one of the benches. He started to walk towards the twins and waved at them.

“Hi”, he greeted when he got closer and sat down next to them.

“Hello, Dan!” Beatrice exclaimed happily and Brittany smiled.

“How are you guys doing?” Dan asked, but Beatrice cut him off with an eyeroll.

“No time for that now”, she announced and crossed her arms. “You said you had some sort of a problem.”

“Yeah, care to tell us more about it, Danny?” Brittany added as well, making Dan sigh.

“If you insist, I was just trying to be polite and ask about your lifes but whatever then”, he huffed, trying to act offended but couldn’t help but smile.

“I guess I should be thankful you even want to help me in the first place”, he laughed, making the twins giggle.

“You should be very grateful indeed, we don’t give our glorious assistance to anyone”, Beatrice joked and they laughed once more.

“But seriously speaking, what do you have in mind this time?” Brittany asked when they had finally stopped their giggling session.

“So”, Dan started, taking a big breath in, “I kind of ended up stealing some businessman’s briefcase that has a lot of papers in it I have absolutely no use for, and I feel so bad about it since the papers look like the owner would be very happy to have them back so I decided to be nice and try to find the guy”, he started to explain, but trailed off when he noticed that both of the girls were laughing again.

“What?” he asked, staring at the giggling twins a confused look on his face.

“Wait wait wait wait, hold on”, Beatrice managed to get out between her laughter. “You are seriously trying to return a thing you stole?”

Dan was still confused, but nodded. “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m trying to do, why are you laughing?” he questioned, getting a bit uncomfortable.

“Oh, Dan, you’re such a sweet guy”, Brittany laughed and patted his shoulder, still chuckling.

“What do you mean?” Dan asked again, dumbfounded.

“Well, not many of the thiefs I know actually bother to try and return the thing they stole if it ends up being totally useless”, Brittany explained with a smile, and Dan blushed a little, crossing his arms with a huff.

“I just feel bad, okay”, he grumbled, making his friends laugh again.

“Aww, come on, don’t go moping because of this”, Beatrice chuckled and poked Dan’s cheek.

When Dan still remained grumpy, Brittany shook her head and smiled mischievously.

“Well, maybe we should tickle him then, if he’s not going to be cooperative”, she suggested, and Beatrice grinned.

“What an excellent idea”, she smirked and they both attacked Dan at the same time, starting to tickle him furiously. Dan had already had a hard time in keeping up his moping attitude, but he completely lost it when his friends tickle-attacked him.

“P-please, give me some mercy, I can’t breath!” he cried out between his pants and uncontrolled laughter, squirming between the girls who laughed maniacally and just kept tickling him.

“Should we grant him the mercy he’s wishing for?” Beatrice asked from her sister after a while when Dan started to look like he could actually die from laughing so much.

“Maybe we should, he’s been suffering enough in my opinion”, Brittany said, and finally they let go of the helpless boy.

“I’m unfriending you”, Dan muttered as he tried to catch his breath, trying to sound annoyed but couldn’t keep the smile off his face.

“No you’re not, you love us”, Brittany exclaimed and hugged the brown haired boy tightly. Soon the three of them were having a group hug, and Dan couldn’t help but agree what Brittany had said. At least there was something pure in this filthy world.

While they were hugging, a pair of men walked past their bench, and one of them wolf whistled at the trio.

“Looks like that guy is getting very lucky”, the other guy smirked to his friend, “two girls at the same time, he’s gotta be very special deal then.”

Brittany and Beatrice started to laugh yet again, and Dan just looked embarrassed.

“Seems like you’re getting lucky tonight”, Beatrice teased Dan, who hid his face behind his hands.

“As if”, Brittany smirked and shook her head.

“Danny boy here is just as straight as his curls at the moment”, she laughed and high-fived her sister.

“Could we just please focus on the problem I have?”, Dan pleaded in a quiet voice, totally defeated and tired of the teasing.

“Okay, we’ll let you rest now”, Brittany smiled.

“Maybe”, added Beatrice. Dan chose to ignore her.

They read through the papers and found out that the guy’s name was Philip Lester, and that he probably was someone fairly new to the business world as none of them had heard of him before. They also found out that his business centered around some kind of electronics. That was all they got to know before the twins had to leave. They didn’t specify where they were going, so Dan didn’t bother to ask. They wouldn’t tell him anyways.

Now he was going to meet two of his other friends, Jesy and Colin. They were dating, and even though Dan sometimes felt like he was third wheeling when he hung out with them, they were good friends. Jesy had her own small resale shop, where she sold stuff that she had bought from somewhere else for a very cheap price. She was a very pretty girl, she had long, dark hair and a stunning smile, so it was no wonder that Colin had fallen for her. Colin got money from stealing cars. He had blonde hair and bright, grey eyes. He and Jesy made a good couple, they had been together for nearly three years now, and their mutual dream was to get married and have kids in the future.

“So, you needed help with something?” Jesy asked from Dan as she was organizing the shelves in her shop. Dan had come here straight from the park, and luckily there was no customers at the time so they got to talk freely.

“Yeah, I do need help, but it might sound like a stupid idea”, Dan warned, but Jesy encouraged him to continue, so he told her and Colin the same thing he had told the twins.

“That’s very nice of you”, Jesy smiled when Dan had finished his story, and elbowed Colin who was laughing beside him. “Don’t laugh, at least he’s got some morals left unlike you”, she hissed, and Colin somehow forced himself to stop laughing.

“Sorry, sorry”, he chuckled, “there just isn’t many of your kind, I have to admit.”

“Yeah, yeah, Brittany and Beatrice found it extremely funny as well”, Dan told them, making Colin grin.

“Well, that’s not surprising”, he muttered, making Dan laugh. “In their opinion everything is funny.”

“Do you know anything about the guy yet?” Jesy asked when they finally got around to try and solve the problem. Dan nodded, taking a few papers out of the briefcase.

“Yeah, I know that his name is Philip Lester, he’s pretty new to the world of business and that he has something to do with electronics”, he told Jesy and she hummed quietly.

“I think I’ve heard about him once or twice”, she started slowly, “but I have to admit that I don’t really know anything more that you already do.”

“Have you tried googling him?” Colin suggested, and Dan’s face lit up.

“No, I haven’t! That’s a perfect idea!” he exclaimed and pulled his phone out.

“Well, if I was looking for someone I totally would google them first but good that I was helpful” Colin smirked, and Dan glanced at him in annoyance.

“Well, sorry for not having that crossing my mind”, he huffed.

“You’re forgiven, everyone makes mistakes”, Colin sing-songed.

“Shut up.”

“Well, I found his company’s website”, Dan mentioned after a few minutes of scrolling. “Apparently they sell almost every kind of electronic stuff, but they only have an online store”, he continued. “And the only e-mail address listed here is the customer service address, which probably is no help at all”, he sighed. “I doubt that they’d tell me where I can find the man who owns the whole thing, especially if I don’t have a good reason for it, and I really can’t tell them I want to return a stolen item.”

“That's probably not a good idea, if you don’t want to get caught, that is”, Jesy stated and Dan nodded.

“Yeah, my plan was just to drop this thing somewhere where he’ll surely find it and give it back that way”, he explained, “but it’s not that easy if they only have a web shop, and I still don’t know what the guy looks like.”

“Have you tried to find his social media accounts? They’re a big thing these days, aren’t they?” Colin spoke then.

“I’ll check Twitter”, Dan mumbled, and started to type something on his phone.

“Well, the closest one is someone whose username is AmazingPhil, he goes by the name of Phil Lester apparently”, he said soon. “I don’t think this is him, though”, he chuckled as he scrolled this twitter page.

“How come?” Jesy questioned, finally getting her organizing job ready.

“Well, he’s got a fringe, similar to mine, he looks like a total dork and tweets mostly about animals and food, there’s not a single mention about anything business related”, Dan told Jesy and handed his phone to her.

“You can never be sure”, she mumbled, but when she came across another one of those cereal-related tweets, she sighed and shook her head in disbelief. “You’re right, that can’t be him” she admitted, giving the phone back to Dan.

“I should head home soon”, Dan yawned after a while. They had given up on his problem hours ago, and had just hung out for the rest of time. He sure had had fun, but his problem still remained unsolved, but he chose to ignore it for a while.

“Okay, be safe as you walk home”, Jesy said and smiled at Dan.

“Yeah, who knows what kind of criminals could be lurking out there”, Colin joked and they all laughed.

“I think I can manage”, Dan chuckled and waved at his friends. “See you guys!”

As he was walking home, his mind started to wander back to the briefcase. Admittedly he had no idea what he was going to do with it. Finding the guy had seemed much easier than it turned out to be. A little voice in his head told him that he was just being stupid. He shouldn’t waste his time in this nonsense, the guy probably had already printed new versions of the papers, and didn’t even think about the ones he had. He considered giving up, but the thought of doing something that was right encouraged him to keep trying. He had done so much wrongs in his life so at least once he wanted to do something right.

Dan decided not to give up just yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that was it. (I apologise for the amount of oc's I have put in this story) In the next chapter things will finally start to happen (about a flipping time) and maybe we'll get Phil in the story as well... Who knows?


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoa there I didn't even think I was going anywhere with this but here I am, updating this piece of crap after god knows how many months

Almost a week had passed since Dan had gotten the briefcase, and even though he had done a lot of searching during the past few days he still had no idea where to find this mysterious Lester guy it belonged to. He had tried asking from everyone he knew, but none of his contacts had had any useful information for him, and he was stressing it a lot more than he should have. 

It was Jimmy who had finally suggested that he should take a break. It was him who Dan ranted about his problems at. Even though he was usually pretty patient with Dan’s outbursts, he was really starting to grow tired of Dan’s constant complaining which was even worse than usual. 

“You really need a proper night out”, he had said when Dan had come home one night and thrown the briefcase under his bed, shouting that this was the last day he ever laid his eyes on that problematic thing. 

Dan had been against the idea at first, but finally, he had agreed when Jimmy had insisted that he really needed something else to think about, and if Dan was being completely honest a drink or two would do him good right now.

 

So that was how they ended up in a bar that had too many people in it for Dan’s liking, but somehow Jimmy still had managed to convince him to stay. 

They sat down by the bar, since every table was already taken, and they ordered drinks for both of them, the cheapest ones on the list yet again. Even though they tasted rather bold, Dan downed his first glass almost straight away. 

“Whoa there, slow down a little, I don’t want to babysit you if you get too hammered tonight”, Jimmy grinned, but Dan just glared at him behind his glass. 

“This was your idea, so you have to deal with the consequences”, he muttered, but silently agreed. He didn’t want to get too wasted, because he hated it when he wasn’t fully in control of himself. God forbid all the things he could do in that state. 

 

After two drinks Dan was finally starting to feel more at ease as he was lazily sipping from his glass and listening Jimmy tell a story about something that had happened to him earlier.  _ This is actually pretty nice _ , he thought to himself and laughed at something his friend said, the alcohol and good company finally giving him the relaxation he was craving. 

Soon Jimmy announced that he really had to go to the toilet, since they already had gone through almost three drinks, and at this point Dan didn’t even mind at all that he was left alone in a bar full of other people. He just nodded and smartly told Jimmy to not get lost on the way, earning an amused eye roll from his friend. 

“Don’t worry, I won’t”, Jimmy chuckled as he was standing up, “and you really shouldn’t fall off that chair of yours.” 

When Jimmy was gone, Dan was left chuckling and thinking of how much of a good time he was actually having.  _ Maybe I should listen to Jimmy more often _ , he thought,  _ I really needed this right now _ .

 

Suddenly there was a voice of someone clearing their throat next to him, and Dan was pulled out of his thoughts. 

“Excuse me”, the voice asked. “So, um, I was wondering if I could sit here next to you because there’s no empty chairs anywhere else”, the voice continued with a tad bit of uncertainty, and Dan remained confused for a while in his tipsy state. Was this man talking to him?

_ Oh, it must be Jimmy’s seat he’s referring to _ , Dan finally managed to figure and was just about to tell the person standing next to him that the chair was occupied by his friend, when he just so happened to raise his gaze from his glass to the awkward stranger.

That was the first major mistake he made that night. 

The guy was _hot,_ to say at least. He had beautiful blue eyes that reminded him of the sea and very, very black hair that he had a sudden urge to bury his hands in. Dan wasn’t sure if the alcohol had something to do with it as well, but his brain went instantly short circuits and he completely forgot about everything else than this drop dead gorgeous stranger standing right in front of him. He could've sworn that the he had seen the man somewhere else before, but he was too tipsy to figure out where, so he just decided to try and get to know this handsome person. 

“Actually”, Dan started slowly after he had managed to pull himself together. “The seat is in fact free right now, so please sit down”, he continued and flashed his brightest smile in the direction of the stranger, who still looked unsure. 

“Are you sure?” the blue eyed man asked, but when Dan started to nod eagerly he managed a small smile and carefully sat down next to him. 

It was quiet between the two for a while. Dan was trying desperately to come up with some natural things to start a conversation with, but somehow it felt so much harder than ever. He almost used the cliche ‘do you come here often’- card, but then he realised that he had nothing to call this stranger.  _ What a perfect way to start a conversation _ , _ asking for his name, _ he complimented himself in his head and gave imaginary thumbs up. He might’ve been more than a bit tipsy at that point.  

“So, what’s your name?” he finally managed to blurt out, trying not to look like he was checking this man out in the meanwhile, which was very hard since his eyes were pretty much fixated on this unfairly attractive guy.

“I’m Phil”, the man, Phil, answered and smiled to Dan, who mirrored the smile straight away, already feeling the nervousness fade away. 

“Oh, I didn’t know anyone named Phil yet”, the brown haired man exclaimed excitedly, “now I can add you to my collection!” That emerged an amused laugh out of Phil, and Dan immediately decided that he liked his laugh. 

“Sure” he chuckled, amused by Dan’s straightforwardness, who just beamed at Phil. There was a slight change that he was already more drunk that he should’ve been, but there was no turning back now. 

After that Phil’s gaze flickered to the glass on the table in front of Dan. He eyed the liquid in the glass with a weird look on his face, and Dan was just about to ask what was wrong when Phil spoke up, “Are you really drinking that?”

“Oh, this?” Dan took the glass in his hand and then nodded. 

“No offense if you actually like it, but I have tasted that once and it isn’t a pleasant memory to me”, Phil said and Dan shrugged nonchalantly. 

“Well, I don’t think it’s that bad”, he started, but burst out laughing when he saw the look on Phil’s face. “Okay, it tastes like shit but it’s not like I could afford anything else”, he admitted, “I’m not in the best financial situation right now.”

Phil shook his head softly and nodded. “I see”, he started and smiled a small smile to Dan. “Would you at least let me buy you a better drink?” 

Dan contemplated that for a bit. He’s definitely had more than enough already, but staying for a drink is definitely a promise of more time spend with this guy, so he just nodded half-heartedly. “Sure, I don’t see why not.” 

  
  


It turned out that accepting a drink from Phil was Dan’s second major mistake for that night. 

He was now completely, utterly hammered, and definitely not himself anymore. They got carried away at some point, and while Dan was obviously having a good time, the flirtatious smiles and comments he had been sporting all night absolutely weren’t his style. Some small voice in his mind told him that when the next morning he’ll be so, so embarrassed, if he even remembered anything that had happened. 

The changes for that were really, really low. 

Somewhere along the way they had inched closer and closer to each other, and now Dan was practically sitting more on Phil’s lap than on his own chair which he, of course, wasn’t aware of. 

It didn’t take them long to start making out on the bar table. 

It also didn’t take long after that to get kicked out of the whole thing. 

And, surprisingly, the taxi drive to Phil’s apartment was ridiculously short as well. 

 

When they stumbled through his apartment door, giggling and legs tangled together it was like no one else existed in their own, drunken world. There was not a single thought of regret or stress in Dan’s head, everything was blurred out by alcohol and lust. 

Neither of them necessarily held back when they actually got their hands on each other. Dan was pressed against a wall by Phil, the latter nibbling his neck in an experimental manner, drawing quiet groans and whimpers from Dan who had his hands in Phil’s hair, an action he had dreamt of doing the whole night. 

“I don’t usually do this kind of thing”, Phil muttered quietly after a while, looking Dan straight into his eyes. The brown haired boy felt like he was swooning. 

“Me neither”, Dan admitted and drew in a shaky breath when Phil decided it was a good idea to bite his lower lip. 

“So, I was thinking.” Phil was now back at kissing and sucking Dan’s neck, the brown haired boy writhing in his place. 

“Bedroom?”

Dan smiled at that, nodding, even though he didn’t completely know what he was agreeing to, but he sure as hell wasn’t stopping here. 

“Bedroom.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok I'm sorry but I can't write smut and this had to be done for the plot!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yo what's up it's me again after a few months

Dan woke up with a throbbing headache and a slightly sore body. He groaned and buried his head deeper into the pillow, wanting to stay in the warm embrace of the covers just a bit longer. In his sleep filled state the only thing he was sure of was the fact that he was badly hungover, and wasn’t making any attempts towards getting out of bed. The soft mattress had never felt so comfortable before. 

That thought was what made Dan stir. Right. The mattress felt too soft compared to what he had home and the pillow was slightly too puff to be his own, and after further thinking the bedsheets even smelt fresh and not like they had been slept in for the past five years. His eyes shot open and he could immediately tell that he wasn’t in their lousy apartment.

The room he had apparently spent the whole night in looked nice. It had soft, creamy white walls with loads of posters on them. There was a drawer in the corner of the room, small figurines and plushies on top of it and a small cactus next to them. There was also another plant in the corner of the room, bigger this time. 

Dan was finally starting to wake up more, and memories from the night before started to come back to his mind. When he remembered the man who had taken him home, he was quick to notice that there was no one beside him. From the sounds of it, the man was still somewhere in the apartment. Dan gnawed anxiously on his bottom lip while thinking about the guy. What in the hell was he supposed to do now? Go talk to him? Or leave without a word? 

After a while, Dan decided that talking to the man would be worth a try since things had gone really well between them last night. Dan got up and started to look for his clothes from the floor. He found them scattered around everywhere. He put them on and picked up his phone from the floor as well. He cursed under his breath when he found out it had run out of battery. He had no idea where he was at the moment and being unable to check his whereabouts from his phone or calling Jimmy made the situation a lot more challenging.  
Dan’s only option was to go and face the guy he had slept with. 

After making sure that he had gathered all his things from the room, Dan headed to the door and opened it quietly. He stepped into a bright, light coloured lounge that had two large windows, a comfy sofa and a decent TV on a stand. Dan walked quickly towards the only door in the room, the sunlight coming through the windows making his eyes hurt. 

Dan stopped right before the door and glanced at the room around him once more. For a split second he thought that if he stole something from here, even one item, he could get back the money he had wasted last night having fun. It would’ve been an obvious thing for Dan to do since stealing was all he got money from, and now he was in some stranger’s house and the stuff pretty much offered itself to him. 

But he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. 

That was quite the problem Dan had with stealing stuff. He cared just a bit too much about people’s feelings and held on to his morals every time possible. He didn’t want to bother this innocent stranger any more than he already had, so he just wanted to get out of here as soon and as smoothly as possible. 

Unfortunately for him, the universe had other plans. Dan was brought back to this world by the door that he had stood in front of this whole time. It almost hit him in the nose, but he managed to take a quick step back, and now he was standing eye to eye with the guy he had just had his pondering moment about. 

The man before Dan blinked once, twice and then started to babble nervously. “Oh my god! I didn’t know you were there!” he rushed to say and gnawed his bottom lip anxiously. “Did I hit you with the door? Are you alright?” he asked with a concerned tone to his voice, leaving Dan just standing there confused. 

“I was just going to come and see if you were still asleep, but I guess that answered it quite perfectly”, the guy continued and let out a nervous laugh, but when Dan still remained quiet he quickly shut his mouth and rushed past him through the door, seemingly embarrassed. “I’m just gonna… Grab some painkillers for you”, he mumbled as he went past, “you can go to the kitchen, I was just about to start making breakfast.”

Dan nodded and walked slowly to the kitchen, still utterly flustered. What in the world just happened, he thought, trying to get his flaming face in control before the black haired guy came back. He sat down at the kitchen table and buried his face in his hands. Apparently, he wasn’t leaving anytime soon. 

Eventually, the man, or Phil, since Dan was finally able to remember his name correctly, showed up again, this time holding a glass of water and painkillers. He handed them to Dan, who mouthed a quiet thank you and downed the pill. Phil went back to making breakfast, and the two remained silent until they were both sitting at the table and eating. 

It was quiet for a long while, neither of them daring to say anything since they didn't really know what to talk about. Last night wasn't an option, Dan figured. He didn't want to talk about it and he was sure that Phil surely didn't want to either. 

“Did you sleep well?” Phil asked, at last, clearly trying to ease the awkward silence between the two. Dan just nodded and quickly glanced at Phil before lowering his gaze back to his food. He mentally scolded himself after that, the guy was just trying to be nice for heaven’s sake! He could've at least answered him properly.

Dan was just about to apologise but then Phil spoke up again: “I don’t really do this often”, he sounded slightly ashamed, “and by ‘this’ I mean… well, this whole situation.”

“Yeah, me neither”, Dan finally spoke up and even dared to look Phil in the eyes. Phil was looking at him already, and Dan found his eyes kind of soothing to look at. “I’m sorry for being like this, I hardly ever go to bars anyway”, he continued, making Phil smile a little. 

“I don’t go out that much either, but now I’ve had some stressful things at work and desperately needed to unwind”, the black haired man chuckled.

“I think we’ve all been there”, Dan said and smiled reassuringly. Phil nodded and said that he appreciated his concern and stood up to clean their plates away.

“I thought that one night stands don't ever end well but you seem nice”, he continued when he came back to Dan, who nodded.

“You’re pretty chill yourself”, Dan answered, and pretty damn good looking too, he added in his mind. Maybe his mistake from the day before wasn’t as big as he had originally thought. 

 

They ended up playing video games on Phil’s TV when Dan had said that he had never tried Mario Kart. Surprisingly, and much to Phil’s annoyance, he ended up being even better than Phil at the game.

“Beginner’s luck”, Phil huffed, when Dan had claimed his victory for the third time in a row. 

“Or I’m just damn good at this”, Dan laughed, getting a shove from Phil.

 

The two played for hours until they realised how long it had already been since they had, well, done anything else. They had been talking about various things while they played, but now they suddenly were at loss of words. 

“So… Should I get going now?” Dan asked after a while. He had gathered his things from Phil’s apartment, and the Phil had also explained their whereabouts. He had also let Dan use his charger, but Dan hadn’t dared to look at his messages just yet. 

“Maybe you should”, Phil said and tried to sound normal, but there was a slight change to his voice that made him sound less enthusiastic than before.

“We will not see each other after this, I guess”, Dan’s voice was questioning. The truth was, neither of them really wanted to leave each other’s company. So when Dan was just about to say goodbye and step out of Phil’s door Phil grabbed his hand and sighed. 

“Look, Dan, I get that you have to go home sometime soon but I still want to spend time with you”, he mumbled, sheepishly looking at his feet, “but if it’s not too much to ask, would you like to grab a coffee with me or something tonight?” “I would really like to get to know you better.”

Dan blinked once, twice, before smiling and taking Phil’s other hand into his own as well, so they were properly holding hands. “Of course I would like to”, he answered, and then Phil was smiling cheerfully and everything was warm and fuzzy and woah, Dan was so screwed. 

“Are we leaving right now?” Dan asked, and Phil nodded, ushering Dan out of the door. 

“Yes”, the black haired man declared, “I have to act quickly so you don't change your mind and I could really use some coffee at this time of day!”


End file.
